1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to an electrical equipment disassembly structure, and in particular to an electrical equipment disassembly structure which, at the time of disassembly, facilitates a removal of a wiring harness fixed to a housing of electrical equipment.
2. Related Art
In recent years, a vehicle such as an automobile has been equipped with a variety of electric components to which wiring harnesses are connected. Also, in order to form a circuit which connects the electric components to the wiring harnesses, it has been equipped with a junction box (J/B), a relay block (R/B) a joint connector (J/C), a connector holder (C/H), an electronic control unit (ECU) and the like.
However, along with increasing recognition of environmental issues, importance has been placed on recycling of resources, and in a vehicle equipped with a multiplicity of electrical equipment as described above, it has been desired to recover, from a scrapped vehicle, copper used in a conductor of a wiring harness and other metal materials used in electric components.
In response to such circumstances, various electrical equipments have been proposed which can be efficiently removed and recovered from a vehicle body at the time of disassembly of a scrapped vehicle.
In electrical equipment disclosed in JP-A-2003-143738, a surface of a housing is provided with a connector hood for engaging and fixing a connector connected to the distal end of a wiring harness, wherein the thickness of a peripheral wall of the connector hood is set to be 1.5 to 2 times a standard value. At the time of disassembly of a scrapped vehicle, the wiring harness is lifted up by a lifting apparatus such as a crane and removed from a vehicle body together with the housing. The thickness of the peripheral wall of the connector hood is set to be 1.5 to 2 the standard value, whereby the mechanical strength of the connector hood is increased to provide a secure locking of the connector of the wiring harness, thus preventing the wiring harness from being unlocked as the hood breaks at the base at the time of disassembly.
In general, in a case of recycling of a scrapped vehicle, a wiring harness, which mainly uses copper as its conductor, and electric components, which also include other metal materials, are treated separately.
The electrical equipment disclosed in JP-A-2003-143738 is configured in such a way that the mechanical strength of the connector hood is increased to securely lock the connector of the wiring harness, and that the wiring harness is lifted up and recovered together with the housing. Normally, a housing of electrical equipment is securely fixed to a vehicle body, and there is concern that a lifting load of the wiring harness is increased. Furthermore, it is not easy to separate the housing and the wiring harness after the wiring harness has been recovered together with the housing. Cutting off the wiring harness and separating it from the housing can also be considered. In this case, however, there is concern about a reduction in workability, and there is also concern about a reduction in wiring harness recovery rate as part of the wiring harness is left behind in the housing.
The invention has been made in view of the aforementioned circumstances, and an object thereof is to provide an electrical equipment disassembly structure which enables an easy and reliable separation of a wiring harness and a housing at the time of disassembly.